Flavorwire’s Guide to Indie Movies You Need to See in July

'A Ghost Story,' 'Landline,' 'Strange Weather,' and more of this month's must-sees.

Well thank God we finally got through June, what with all the Cars and Transformers sequels and Mummy reboots and other crimes against cinema. July, to be fair, looks much more promising, mainstream-movie wise: a new Christopher Nolan, another shockingly excellent installment in the Planet of the Apes series, and one of our favorite movies from SXSW, Atomic Blonde. And if those aren’t your brand of vodka, well, this month’s indie offerings are as plentiful, and high-quality, as ever.

On one hand, the title of the latest from writer/director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Pete’s Dragon) is totally accurate – this is, no doubt about it, a ghost story. But that phrase draws up connotations of supernatural horror, which aren’t really what Lowery’s up to at all; the very few effects are charmingly rudimentary, and the primary spectral image is rendered with the sophistication of a five-year-old’s Halloween costume. None of it matters, because he’s not making a scary movie – he’s making a movie that thoughtfully unpacks our common wisdom about those who linger in this world after their death, and the unthinkable sadness of that existence. It’s a tiny but beautiful movie, and I’ll leave it at that; frankly, the less you know going in, the better.